I Heart TV

Since I have been sick with the plague I have had alot of time to re-connect with my old friend: TV. As you may remember we tried a social experiment where we went without TV. That was fine until we realized that Basketball season was coming up soon. Now we have more TV that we know what to do with. 900 channels. So here are the shows I am currently watching. #1 on my TV and in my heart is DEXTER. We are actually still catching up on Season 1 and taping Season 3. This is the perfect show in every way. Gory, funny, and sometimes scary.

True Blood, which I thought would suck, is actually very good and very funny. It is like the Twilight series for grown-ups. (By that I mean there is ALOT of sex in it.)

Pushing Daisies is just the sweetest show out there. It is really oddball and eccentric, and has the best cast on TV. It had a short run last year because of the writer's strike, but I am so glad it is back. It premieres Wednesday night.

Whatever. Everyone has a deep dark secret don't they?

Still Sick..

The germs living in my throat...
This is how I feel (and look)...

I wish someone had bought me this book....

One more thing...

In the delirium of fever last night I finished "20th Century Ghosts" by Joe Hill. This is the best work I have read in a long time (that does not involve teenage vampires.) It is a collection of short stories, not all of which are Horror, but all of which tackle memory and loss, a "ghost" in each story.. Best New Horror, the first story, is scary as hell, especially if you are immersed in this world as I am. 20th Century Ghost and Pop Art are things of beauty, as is Dead-Wood, more of a poem than a short story. Loved it, can't wait for his next collection (he also wrote Heart-Shaped Box.) The guys website is funny as hell as well. He is listed under my Motivators section.

Sick-mind ramblings...

I am freakin sick and it pisses me off!! Home sick today. Bad sore throat, which if I didn't have an hour + commute there and back wouldn't be so bad, but I do, so there. If I make less sense than usual, it is because I am sick. Luckily we have television again, and I have like 900 channels to watch. But all I have been watching is Zombie movies, which does nothing for my mental health, obviously... So I took a break yesterday (at the zenith of sickness) and watched a Val Lewton double feature starring my FAVORITE guy, Mr. Boris Karloff. Both films were very good. I am not in the "Val Lewton is a genius" camp, but I can appreciate his vision. Of the two films, I thought "Isle of the Dead" was far superior. Karloff plays a Greek Army General trapped on an Island with a few others because of an outbreak of the plague (that sucks. I think I have the plague right now.) As people start dying off, Karloff starts to lose his mind. Karloff gives a sympathetic performance as a man loosing his grip on reality.

Oddly enough, both of these films are based on works of art. "Isle of the Dead" is based on a series of paintings by creepy Symbolist Swiss Painter Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901). These paintings are really beautiful and worth checking out. The "Isle" of the film really captures this mood..
The second film "Bedlam" is not as good, but still enjoyable. Karloff plays a true creepy perv in this one. I liked the lead Female character played by Anna Lee. She starts out as a Bitch, and sorta remains a Bitch, even though she becomes the "hero" of the film. And she falls in love with a hot Quaker.

"Bedlam" was based on Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress". It is the final panel where the "Rake" ends up at Bedlam (Bethlem Royal Hospital), for all of his bad behavior. Once upon a time in another life I visited Bethlem when I lived in England. I was writing a paper on an Artist who did some time there. They actually have a little museum where you can buy souvenirs. I bought a Bedlam coffee mug. Of course the place is very civilized now. Time to take some more medicine and watch Gossip Girl..

A Nice Distraction..

http://gammillustrations.bizland.com/monsterkid7/index.html

A fun online magazine that reminds me of Famous Monsters of Filmland. I used to have a subscription to that. I don't even know if that magazine is still around.

Back in my life...

We have just started receiving the San Jose Mercury News and their awesome comics page (2 pages long) features my favorite Doctor, Rex Morgan MD!!

I used to read Rex in the Press Democrat, rather religiously, and even collected Rex Memorabilia. That is not an easy thing to do since there is no Rex Memorabilia. One thing I bought was a homemade wooden purse with a Rex comic pasted on to it. Anywho, I am so happy to have Rex and June and the little girl whose name I forget and Abbey the dog back in my life. The story lines are so thrilling I doubt I will be able to sleep at night. Rex and Zombies are what keep me up...

Zombie Day..

Start making plans for World Zombie Day, October 26th, 2008. http://www.myspace.com/worldzombieday

Of course I suffer from Ambulothanatophobia, so I will be staying indoors....

Happy 1st Day of Autumn!

Good Lovecraft Films

Re-Animator.

From Beyond.

Inspired by Lovecraft:

The greatest films ever made-

Evil Dead

Evil Dead II

Army of Darkness

New Woody Allen..

Thumbs up for Woody Allen's latest. Although it is not his best effort, it was a nice change of pace from my constant diet of Horror. Not that a constant diet of horror is a bad thing..


And another spectacular LIO. I love this comic so much. Have I mentioned that? Please support the freaky little kid. http://www.gocomics.com/lio/

My Commute

The old Dumbarton Bridge.

Here is a list of things I saw on the side of the road of the Dumbarton Bridge during my commute yesterday.

• A Teddy Bear
• A Twin Size Mattress
• Numerous dead birds
• A Minnie Mouse Doll
• A dead Jack-Rabbit
• A Hard Hat
• A very pretty Purple and Turquoise striped hoodie
• 3 black garbage bags filled with unknown substances (probably body parts)
• About 50 yards or so of pink yarn
• A can of Steel Reserve

The jack rabbit and Minnie Mouse doll have been there for over a month. Minnie keeps getting hit by cars and moved down the bridge. Pretty soon she will be in Palo Alto.

The New York Times did a really great article about the greatest actor alive. Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/arts/television/14rhod.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

The Wicker Man

This is some freaky-deaky shit right here. Yet another film I always put off...It is one of those horror films that you are embarrassed to admit you haven't seen. It was, after all, called the "Citizen Kane" of horror films (it was the 70's.) I had no idea it was a musical, first of all, and also a nudie pic. If that doesn't sell you right away, it also features Christopher Lee in drag and a totally fucked up ending.
I still haven't seen the recent remake with Nic Cage, and don't plan to. I have heard that it is not a musical, and therefore has NO songs about penises. I don't want to see The Wicker Man without the penis song.

HP Lovecraft Films...

Film adaptations of HP Lovecraft's work are notoriously crappy. I mean the most recent made for TV one stars Tori Spelling. But I thought I would give these nuggets from Roger Corman's AIP a try. And boy, am I glad I did..

First up was Die, Monster Die! which is VERY loosely based on The Colour out of Space, which was one of Lovecraft's most "sci-fi" type of stories. The film is awesome because 1: Boris Karloff is in it (which automatically makes it awesome) and 2: The special effects are beyond bad. I mean, I think I did better special effects in my video class in high school.

The next film, The Dunwich Horror, really takes the cake. Dean Stockwell is one of the creepiest looking actors EVER! I forgot how crazy his eyes were. Same goes for Sandra Dee. She is scary because she could not act her way out of paper bag. Again, this is very loosely based on Lovecraft's story. Lovecraft's Dunwich Horror does not contain so many Elder God rape sequences. In fact, there are none, but in this film you can count on one every 15 minutes or so. What kicked ass about this film is the groovy soundtrack by Lex Baxter. I must have it.

That second movie, bad as it was, gave me damn Zombie nightmares all night! Not a zombie in that film, but one of the survivors in my nightmare was Ed Begley, who places the professor. Thank god Dean Stockwell did not show up...

Zombies in Love...

http://mingle2.com/zombieharmony/free-dating-sites

Busy man...

My favorite filmmaker is going to be very busy for the next 9 years. After Guillermo del Toro finishes "The Hobbit" (2 films) he has signed with Universal for 5 more films, including remakes of "Frankenstein" and "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," a film version of Dicken's "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," a "re-do" of "Slaugherhouse-Five" and finally, the project he has wanted to do for years, "At the Mountains of Madness." I have a feeling he agreed to do all this to get money for "Mountains." He has said it would cost a fortune and believe it or not, studios don't want to shell out that kind of money for an HP Lovecraft adaptation. Whatever, it's great, as long as he keeps making movies. I guess this means no Hellboy 3 though..

NIN show..

The show was awesome last night. The visuals were incredible and the band sounded great. I didn't even get beer spilled on me. Still waiting for images from last night's show to be posted on flicker..

I need to see a scary movie....

I think the last "horror" film I saw in the theatres was The Orphanage (awesome, scary flick btw) and that was all the way back in January. There have been a few horror films released (like The Ruins) but I couldn't muster any enthusiasm to go see them. They scream "Netflix." So what do I have to look forward too? The next Saw flick for Halloween (which of course I will go see. My love-hate relationship with that film franchise is rivaled only by my love-hate relationship with Twilight franchise)?

I guess There will be Blood was a horror film. I saw that one twice. By the way, the Frankenstein posters are here because I thought they were cool, and I am moving away from vampires other kinds of Monsters. Monsters or Ghosts, I just can't decide. No zombies though. I am just not ready.

Lafayette Memorial

LIO

I want to go to the ghost party too!! I actually really want to go to Gettysburg. I just finished reading about all the hauntings there. That is, after I finally make it out to the haunted Toys R Us here in Sunnyvale...

Actual picture of the Ghost that haunts the Toys R Us..

Picture of possible future ghost "The Orange Menace.." Spooky isn't it?

No TV = I don't give a S***.

I don't want to be buried...

in a Pet Cemetery... These are some pictures Pumpkin and I took of an old Pioneer Cemetery near where I grew up. This is what we did instead of making sure we got to work on time on Labor Day...
This was a spooky, decaying, creepy old Cemetery. I loved it. It would have been better at night of corpse (ha ha ha.)


This is really a crypt that has been broken into. Unfortunately the Cemetery was fenced off so we could not look inside..

The best part was this spooky Black Cemetery Cat that just sat there like a statue staring at us. First of all, we couldn't figure out what these little crosses were. This is supposed to be an abandoned Cemetery so why the new, unmarked graves? Notice Black Cat is "guarding" a fresh one? This cat just stared at us for the longest time before getting up and walking away. Demon? Ghost? Spaghetti Cat? Not quite sure...